Korean Job Discussion Forums

kiwiduncan · Joined: 18 Jun 2007 Location: New Zealand

Five days into my Yeosu sojourn. Nice fresh air compared to Seoul and lovely coastal scenery. I went for my first brief bike ride today and liked what I saw. How much do the ferries to the small islands cost?

Cheers,

Duncan

PeteJB · Joined: 06 Jul 2007

Gotta love those coastal towns. Smile

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

All of them seem dumpy. That 'black rock' beach at Ulsan was even polluted with trash all over the rocks. I don't even eat sashimi near the seaside cuz I don't trust the cleanliness of the fish.

I don't see what Yeosu has to offer for a World Expo. What a joke.

When I finally go to Geoje and Jeju I might change my opinion.

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

fIVE DAYS AND YOU HAVE A BIKE...DID YOU BRING IT W/ YOU TO kOREA?

normalcyispasse · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 4:16 pm Post subject:

spliff, check your capslock. Wink

The ferries are pretty inexpensive. Most of the easily-accessible islands will run you about 10-20,0000krw. I think my trip to Geomun-do was 20k. If you wanted to, say, charter a boat to An-do late at night with a group of 7 other foreigners that might cost you 120,000 for a round-trip.

I see you found Dolsan park. Nice view, huh?

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

Hey, I think I may have seen you yesterday. I passed a white guy biking up near Dolsan Park yesterday afternoon. (are you a white guy, haha?)

Anyway, I'm also curious about the ferries. Gogeum-do looks interesting. Did you go for the day, or spend the night? I went past the ferry terminal, and it looks like the trip is 2.5 hours . . . is that right?

VanIslander · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:06 pm Post subject:

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

If you like small green islands with very little in basic services then Gogeum-do is for you. There's a ferry that you catch at Mokpo that I know of.

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

Off-topic, but Yeosu, Suncheon, and Gwangyang are in talks to merge by 2010 in order to bump Yeosu's population and make it more attractive for the expo. Latest update I heard is that Gwangyang rejected the idea---but I'm not sure how reliable that is, b/c the mayor and the populace originally approved.

Anyway, Yeosu is pleasant and scenic, but it does seem incongruous for it to host the World Expo. A lot can change in 5 years, I know, and a lot will need to. If they do end up incorporating Suncheon and Gwangyang, that will be a bit nightmarish. Not only are all three of those "cities" cases of terrible sprawl gone wild---they're all the products of several mergers themselves---but transportation between them isn't too efficient. They're building a bridge across Gwangyang Bay, which will help, but I think they'd need to put in some type of rail line between the three to make it quicker and easier. THis is all in addition to the general lack of "worldiness" about the whole area . . . don't get me wrong, I really like Suncheon, and I always defend the area against people like Cohiba, but can you imagine if they decided to hold the games in Harrisburg? (Where's Harrisburg? That's the point.)

edit: Well, wikipedia says the other two candidates are Tangiers, Morocco and Wroclaw, Poland, so it's not like Yeosu's competing against New York and Hong Kong. It is interesting to see how geared up the government is about securing the expo. Their motto, though is "The Living Ocean and Coast: Diversity of Resources and Sustainable Activities." Doesn't quote roll off the tongue.

VanIslander · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:34 pm Post subject:

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

normalcyispasse · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

I live in Suncheon now. Last year I lived in a small town in rural Jeonnam (don't want to out myself too much on Dave's).

I came across news of the merger about a week ago, though the news stories were from early September. I'm surprised I hadn't heard anything about it at all, nor had I heard any follow up. I brought it up with my coworkers at our weekly workshop, and that's when they said Gwangyang rejected it. I don't have any sources for that, though, so I'm skeptical.

Anyway, here are a few stories on it . . . if you find anything else, please pass it along, as I'm interested in some of the details:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200709/200709070009.html

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/nation_view.asp?newsIdx=9782&categoryCode=117

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2007090884258

The English-language Yeosu site doesn't have anything about it. It does mention bringing other cities into the "FEZ," but that was back in February.

kiwiduncan · Joined: 18 Jun 2007 Location: New Zealand

PeteJB: yep, they've got a lot of charm in many areas.

Matthew's_world: I agree with your point about the rubbish. It's a great shame to see some of the coastline here, which really is quite attractive, being despoiled by so many plastic bottles, scraps of fishing nets, discarded polystyrene and other assorted crap. Given that the Yeosu's theme for its 2012 Expo bid is 'The Living Ocean and Coast' it would be great to see the local authorities getting more serious about cleaning up and protecting the coastline. Certainly if they have any beach clean-up days I'll happily join in.

Spliff; I brought it with me from the UK. This is my Kona's second visit to Korea. Hopefully it won't get stolen this time round (It got stolen last time then I saw an old man riding it up the street in Seoul three years later).

Normalcyispasse; cheers for the prices - I'll have to head out ot one of them sometime.

Smee, yes, that would be me. White guy, yellow bike right? It wasn't you I said hello to was it? He was walking up the hill and seemed a bit taken aback.

Van Islander; you've said that Geoje island is considered to have some of the best coastal cycling in Asia. Have you ever ridden around Yeosu?